2012 U.S. Open Round One Quick Wrap-Up

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It was a prototypical, retro opening day at the US Open: Cinderella stories, a few superstars lurking and a vicious golf course ruining the hopes of several.

Not prototypical was the setup, which had more bite than recent Mike Davis setups in large part do to a huge shift in conditions overnight (I wrote about this for Golf World Daily). The greens were noticeably firmer right off the bat of the Tiger-Phil-Bubba grouping. But with the increased firmness, combined with fairways simply not wide enough for any kind of speed, players are put on the defensive. Drivers were scarce (Tiger hit three) and because of the narrowness, several players said shot shaping was mostly discouraged.

Doug Ferguson's game story sums up a rather old school U.S. Open first round:

The U.S. Open featured two marquee groups, but only one marquee player.

Take Tiger Woods out of the equation and the top five players in the world were no match for unforgiving Olympic Club.

Then again, not many were.

The lead belonged to Michael Thompson, a 27-year-old in his first U.S. Open as a pro. He made seven birdies - that's seven more than Luke Donald - for a 4-under 66 that gave him a three-shot lead over Woods and the four other lucky souls to manage to break par Thursday.

Steve DiMeglio went the Tiger route with his USA Today lede:

Tiger Woods was in total control of his golf game from his opening tee shot Thursday in the first round of the 112th U.S. Open on the arduous Lake Course at historic Olympic Club.

Sean Martin quotes 66-shooter, 22-putts-in-his-round(!) leader Michael Thompson.

“I’ve been looking forward to hopefully playing in this event for over two years,” he said. There’s a good reason why. He was runner-up in the 2007 U.S. Amateur at Olympic Club. He's staying on San Francisco's famed Lombard Street with the same family that hosted him during that Amateur. This is Thompson’s first major as a professional. What more could the second-year PGA Tour player want?

“This is just a bonus in my career. I'm not guaranteed into all the majors,” said Thompson, who had a three-shot lead when he finished Thursday’s round. “And then to have it be on one of my most favorite golf courses in the world, even better.”

Martin also has a nice piece on the Cinderellas from day one, including J.B. Park, Alistair Presnell and Beau Hossler, who all handily beat some big names.

Bob Harig analyzes the struggles of the all-star UK threesome and the conditions in the morning versus afternoon rounds.

Gary Van Sickle says that "by and large, Olympic delivered multiple humblings to the rest of the field" and runs through the ways the course won the day.

David Shefter's first round notes covers the usual noteworthy stuff, from Hossler to Mickelson's tree ball to Ryo Ishikawa's caddie Steve Molinelli, and Olympic Club member who looped for winner Colt Knost in the 2007 U.S. Amateur.

The round one scores are here.

GolfDigest.com's Birdies and Bogies from round one.

USOpen.com's picture stream is pretty impressive for image buffs.

Getty Images best shots from round one can be viewed here.

And a Golfweek image gallery is here.

If you missed it, Nick Watney's albatross.

Golf Channel's 16 minute highlight package is here.

Jimmy Roberts interviewed Thompson after the round.

And the ESPN Sportscenter highlight package:

Coach Martin Posts 74 In The Tough Afternoon Conditions

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Casey Martin recovered from a tough start, reports Bill Fields.

Early on, Martin was five over through the Olympic Club's tough half-dozen opening holes. Then came a welcome birdie at No. 7. Later on, his nerves settled down (some) and he finished with a four-over 74. It was the same first-round score he shot in his historic U.S. Open appearance at Olympic 14 years ago after he had sued for the right to ride a cart due to a painful congenital circulatory disorder in his right leg.

Tiger's First Round U.S. Open 69 Round-Up: "Beautiful . . . Awesome . . . Impressive."

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Alan Shipnuck declares the tournament over after Tiger Woods' opening 69.

There may be 54 holes left to play, but Tiger Woods has already won this U.S. Open. Forget the fire hydrant, the swing change, the dropped-kicked 9-iron -- that's all ancient history now. Woods displayed some vintage dominance during a first round 69 at our 112th national championship. He's three shots out of the lead and no one can catch him.

The Olympic Club has a history of slaying great champions, but it's a perfect venue for Woods.

Randall Mell files a rave review, too.

How good was Woods’ start? If you saw the mighty struggle Watson and Mickelson endured trying to survive Olympic playing with Woods, you left with an even deeper appreciation of Woods’ shot-making.

Woods whipped up on Watson, the reigning Masters champ, by nine shots. He finished seven shots better than Mickelson.

Beautiful . . . Awesome . . . Impressive.

There’s only one reasonable response the rest of the field can have to those assessments by Woods’ playing partners.

Yikes!

Steve Elling went the entire 18 with Tiger and shares details from inside the ropes, including this about the driving show by Woods:

It was pretty pretty, actually. Woods was credited with hitting 10 of 14 fairways, which is accurate, but it requires an asterisk and an explanation.

On three of those holes, the ball came to rest in the first cut, which means he missed by perhaps two or three feet. On the other miss, he raked a 3-wood tee shot on the drivable seventh hole, playing about 260 yards uphill, into a greenside bunker.

Robert Lusetich was struck by Tiger's post round demeanor and I would agree that there was an old-Tiger, ho-humness to the day.

But it didn't require comparative statistics to know that, four years removed from his last major, Woods is once again a force with which to be reckoned. His demeanor told far more than any statistics could.

Despite having failed in the past 12 majors — the longest drought of his career — Woods wasn’t high-fiving anyone. In fact, he barely smiled.

"I’m hungry," he shrugged.

Ron Sirak wasn't so wild about the logistics of today's all-star pairing featuring Woods, Mickelson and Watson.

When all is said and done here, the USGA might want to reconsider such high-profile pairings and instead spread around the talent wealth. About the only folks who really benefitted from Woods, Mickelson and Watson playing together was ESPN, which has the early-round TV rights. Almost everyone other stakeholder got the short end of the stake.

The crush of gallery and media about the group made it difficult to see for those folks who paid good money to be on property. It also left other groups with embarrassingly small crowds. And clearly, the carnival atmosphere didn't help either Mickelson or Watson.

John Strege's media notes include some nice moaning about Chris Berman's announcing from Twitter and an Andy North analogy between Tiger's play today and his play at Hoylake.

Former PGA Tour Sponsor Gets 110 Years Without Parole

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Clifford Krauss on a "defiant" Allen Stanford getting sentenced to prison for a Ponzi scheme that cost several professional golfers savings.

A defiant Mr. Stanford, in a rambling statement to the court before the sentencing, intermittently fought back tears and shuffled papers, and said, “I’m not up here to ask for sympathy or forgiveness. I’m up here to tell you from my heart I didn’t run a Ponzi scheme.”

He blamed the government for the collapse of his businesses and asserted that “we could have paid off every depositor and still have substantial assets remaining.”

In response, federal prosecutor, William J. Stellmach, called Mr. Stanford’s version of events “obscene.”

2012 U.S. Open Round One This, That And Comments

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I'm about to head out on the course to watch the marquee group of Woods, Mickelson and Watson.

With no phones on the course, there will be no Tweeting, but you can see it all right here on the USGA site, anyway.

Keep an eye on holes 13 and 17 this morning. I previewed the course setup along with tweaks made to the preparation of those two holes for Golf World Daily.

Follow scoring here.

Groupings and times here.

And courtesy of reader Mike, a local weather and wind page of interest.

ESPN, ESPN3 and WatchESPN will air eight hours of live play each day on Thursday and Friday from noon – 3 p.m. and 5-10 p.m. ET. NBC is on from 3 p.m. ET to 5 p.m. ET.

Enjoy!